VauDe Mark II > Reviews > A serious tent for serious camping!

Author's product rating:   

Waterproofing	Excellent
Durability	Durable
How easy is it to put it up?	Very easy

Advantages:	Easy up and down, light weight, OUTER UP FIRST !
Disadvantages:	Rather expensive, suffers from condensation if zips fully closed

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I purchased a VauDe MkII lite over 1 year ago and have never looked back!
I put the tent up in the back garden as per the instructions that were easy to follow. When you first get the tent the inner is not attatched so you lay the outer on the floor and the elasticated frame is placed on top. The 4 corners of the outer are then inserted into the ends of the frame and the elastic of the outer easily clipped onto the frame.

The inner is then attatched and can stay this way for the life of the tent!

In use the tent is a roomy 2 man with ample space for kit or tight fitting 3 man. This tent has a huge hydrostatic head, meaning that it is very water proof. This does however bring it's own problems. The tent is coated in silicone which, although water resistant is not breathable. As such, when camping in warmer climates, and in general, you need to keep the top parts of the zips on both ends open to allow throughput of air. This is not a problem as both ends are shrouded from rain to some degree.

In all of the time that I have had the tent I have only used the main base pegs, not the guy lines. The tent is so sturdy that unless in a severe gale the guy lines are not needed. Remember that you are paying for a mountain tent and it serves its' purpose well!

One problem that I have had with my tent, although not enough of a problem for me to contact VauDe over it, is that the small plastic inserts at the ends of the main tent poles have strayed and are likely inside the Snowdon Horseshoe somewhere GR SH601 545 if you want to look for them!!

Packing away the tent is as much of a dream as putting it up, even with gloves on! You simply unclip the elastic cord and end clips, allow the inner and outer (still attatched) to fall to the ground, fold up the frame, unpeg and stuff the tent into it's bag. They reccomend not folding as this can cause leaking where the tent is always folded on the same creases! And stuffing it into the bag is a wonderfull feeling especially when you are watching the others in your group struggle to get their tents back in the bag!

All in all, if this tent was damaged or stolen tomorrow I would go out and buy the same again (after saving up)!